NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Jeffrey Lacker, a consistent opponent of the central bank’s bond-buying, said Thursday that a stronger job market should allow policy makers to start winding down the program soon.

“When we originated the program we said that we were going to continue with the program of purchases until we’d seen a significant improvement in the outlook for labor market conditions,” Mr. Lacker said following a speech at Christopher Newport University. “I think a good case can be made that that condition has been met.”

The unemployment rate was 7.4% in July, down from 7.8% in September when the latest round of bond purchases was announced.

Mr. Lacker’s comments come as the Fed weighs the next steps for its $85 billion-a-month program ahead of its Sept. 17-18 meeting.

The bond purchases are meant to boost the economy by holding down interest rates. The central bank in May started signaling that it could begin reducing its bond purchases some time this year, causing Treasury yields and mortgage rates to rise. Higher interest rates can restrain the economy.

Officials appear to hold a range of views on when and how much to scale back. The Richmond Fed president has consistently opposed the unorthodox measures to boost the economy, saying the effects are only transient and the long-term consequences uncertain.

“I think the jury is out on whether [quantitative easing] has had a substantial effect,” he said.

Mr. Lacker declined to say when or how much the Fed’s policy-making committee would reduce the purchases. But he said the first step should focus on reducing purchases of mortgage-backed securities. It’s not appropriate for the Fed to channel credit to one particular market, Mr. Lacker added.

The ongoing debate at the Fed is unfolding amid significant turnover. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is not expected to seek another term when his current post expires in January 2014. Fed Gov. Elizabeth Duke recently announced she would leave at the end of August and Fed Gov. Sarah Bloom Raskin has been nominated by President Barack Obama for the No. 2 post at the U.S. Treasury. Outside Washington, Cleveland Fed President Sandra Pianalto plans to step down early next year after more than a decade leading the regional bank.

Mr. Lacker said the change in personnel has had little discernible effect on policy making. “I think everyone around the table is thinking about policy in longer run terms,” he said.

Mr. Lacker credited Mr. Bernanke with creating a collegial atmosphere and encouraging debate, and said he hopes that continues.

Mr. Lacker has regularly found himself in the minority among fellow policy makers who have broadly backed bond-buying.

In a speech at the university, he warned that the central bank risks its independence when it uses its balance sheet to support particular industries, highlighting a key concern related to the Fed’s role during the financial crisis and subsequent economic downturn.

Mr. Lacker said experience has shown that a measure of central bank independence is critical to successful monetary policy.

“Aggressive use of a central bank’s asset portfolio to channel credit to particular economic sectors or entities threatens dragging the central bank into distributional politics and places that governance arrangement at risk,” Mr. Lacker said.

The Fed, of course, moved quickly and forcefully to prop up the financial system during the latest crisis–in one notable instance steering tens of billions of dollars to rescue American International Group Inc. in 2008. The insurer has since repaid the loans.

The Fed also has purchased billions of dollars of Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities in an effort to push down interest rates and help spur a painfully slow recovery, more than tripling its balance sheet to about $3.6 trillion.

The Fed’s efforts during and after the financial crisis have drawn criticism from some lawmakers and other quarters, though measures to rein in the central bank haven’t gained traction.

Mr. Lacker is not a voter on the policy-making Federal Open Market Committee this year.

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